Asian stocks lower as US, NKorea nuclear tensions rise

USA stocks were lower on Wednesday afternoon as investors rushed to safe-haven assets after President Donald Trump's "fire and fury" warning to North Korea escalated tensions with the nuclear-armed nation. The S&P 500 lost six points, or 0.24%, to close at 2,475 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 13 points, or 0.21%, to 6,370.

The S&P had been down 0.52 percent at its session low.

President Donald Trump's warning North Korea faced "fire and fury" and Pyongyang's threat of possible retaliation drove investors out of stocks on Wednesday and into the safety of the yen, Swiss franc, gold and government debt.

The comments came after reports said the U.S. intelligence community has determined that North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles. Energy stocks fell along with crude prices as investors kept an eye on the latest company earnings and geopolitical news.

Small attributed a large part of the Dow's decline to disappointing earnings from Disney after the media giant reported a weak quarter, said it would pull its movies from Netflix and start two of its own video streaming services.

The market was higher at lunchtime but veered lower in the afternoon Tuesday.

In the Dow, declines in shares of Merck and DuPont, down 0.9% and 0.8% respectively, outweighed gains in shares of Apple and Microsoft, up 1.3% and 0.7% respectively. Netflix was down 1.8 percent.

Priceline Group dropped 8 percent after issuing a profit forecast that was weaker than analysts were expecting.

Shares of hotelier Marriott International slumped more than 3%, a day after the firm said it expected limited growth in North America in coming months.

In Europe, the pan-continental STOXX 600 index lost 0.9 percent, with falls deepening after reports a vehicle had rammed a group of soldiers in Paris, injuring six. The company booked a hefty charge and said its CFO is leaving the company.

The blue-chip index closed down 0.2% at 22,085.34, its first loss in eleven days.